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The study was carried out to show the prevalence of Babesia canis and Hepatozoon canis in dogs within Zaria. Between the months of May and August 2010, blood samples collected from 150 dogs were processed using Giemsa stained thin blood smear and examined for the presence of B. canis and H. canis. Of the 150 dogs sampled, 84 (56%) were males and 66 (44%) were females. 106 (70.7%) were adults aged 1 year and above while 44 (29.3%) were dogs below the age of 1 year. Local breeds numbered 111 dogs constituting (74%) of the total number sampled, while 20 (13.3%) and 19 (12.7%) were foreign and cross breed respectively. One hundred and five (70%) of all dogs sampled were unconfined while 45 (30%) were confined. B. canis and or H. canis occurred in 26(17.3%) dogs, of which 10(38.5%) and 12(46.2%) had single infection of the former and later respectively, while 4(15.4%) had mixed infections of both parasites. The occurrence of the haemoparasites was significantly higher (X 2 = 12.20, p < 0.05, OR= 4.467) in younger dogs than in the adults, but there was no statistically significant association between the occurrence of the parasites and the breed (X 2 = 0.3794, p > 0.05) or sex (X 2 = 1.237, p > 0.05) of the sampled dogs. All the infected dogs were as well infested by the tick vector Rhipicephalus sanguineus with the non-confined dogs having significantly higher (X 2 = 37.93, p < 0.05) tick infestation rates. The infestation rates in both confined and non-confined groups had no statistically significant association to the respective levels of haemo-parasitism.(X 2 = 0.1410, p < 0.05, OR= 1.24).

Aim: The purpose of this pilot study was to genetically identify and characterize Coxiella burnetii from Amblyomma varigatum ticks collected on cattle in North central Nigeria. Materials and Methods:A total of 40 partially fed ticks morphologically identified as adult A. variegatum ticks collected from cattle owned by Fulani pastoralists were evaluated for the presence of C. burnetii using PCR, cloning, and sequencing of the heat shock polypeptide gene htpB.Results: C. burnetii DNA was detected in 10 (25%) of the ticks analyzed. Sequences for the C. burnetii gene htpB detected in our samples had 99-100% identity to all other C. burnetii that have been described and that are deposited in the GenBank database. Phylogenetic analysis using neighbor-joining method indicates the clustering of C. burnetii sequences from our study areas with those collected from Oyo state, South-western Nigeria and Spain. Conclusion:This study shows a high infection rate of C. burnetii in A. variegatum ticks in the study areas. Phylogenetic inferences indicates that the strain of C. burnetii found in the North central states of Plateau and Nasarawa were same as those previously reported in the South western state of Oyo. The presence of this pathogen in naturally occurring A. variegatum tick populations could present an additional risk of Q-fever disease to humans, especially to the pastoralists that are closely associated with their animals and are easily exposed to tick bites. Therefore, further studies are needed to assess the competence of A. variegatum ticks as vectors of C. burnetii pathogens.

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